YO SOY UN CALIFORNIA GIRL

Hi guys, 

OVERVIEW (of the past 48 hrs) 

So my fears were unwarranted on two levels. Firstly, I get to email you guys today even though I did in fact lose a p day for travel (ESTA BIEN though I had a wonderful day of orientation with the people in the mission office!!!). Secondly, I am allowed to email extended family and friends. Pero, I still recommend mail for most of you as my email time is very short, and we have to spend some of it reporting back to the mission president about our week (which I did not have to do at CCM). Now that that is cleared up, I am going to give you a mini run down of the past 48 hours in the field. I would tell you about my last week at the CCM but, in comparison to the past 48 hours, that is actually pretty boring haha. Ok so we woke up at like 1 in the morning and got to the airport and through security by like 5. THEN we decided (or I should probably admit this was mostly hmn bjorks idea) that we were really missionaries now and so we needed to (as it says in Preach My Gospel) talk to EVERYONE. CUE REJECTION LIKE NEVER BEFORE EXPERIENCED IN LIFE. I can honestly say people have never been so mean to me. Then the Elders (who were not doing anything) proceeded to tease us about our number of rejections, and make us feel pretty bad. After that, I kind of shut down. I couldn't get myself to talk to anyone for the rest of the morning. However, after praying for comfort and confidence that I could do this, I found a talk in my Ensign from last years general conference that Elder Holland gave that I think was called The Joyful Burden of Discipleship or something like that. In it, he told a story of two sister missionaries that got potatoes thrown at their head by a man they hadn't even talked to yet. ( It is amazing, how people really will react positively or negatively to you based on your nametag before you even say anything. ) Anyways, it basically says that part of being a disciple of Christ, is suffering rejection from time to time (/in certain cases all of the time) but that that DOES NOT MEAN IT IS NOT WORTH IT. And that was EXACTLY what I needed to hear! Thanks Holy Ghost for prompting me to read my Ensign. And THEN my miracles of miracles I sat next to a man who is a member of the church and served his mission in Brazil probably about 50 years ago or something, and he made me feel a lot better telling all his stories. It really, really helped me to talk to him about it! And then the day just went up from there-- the APs were brilliant and they met us right when we got to California. After that they drove us to the office and told us about different areas of the mission and asked us about ourselves as we drove there. One of them was this Australian guy with an AWESOME accent so that was cool. But in all reality, I should tell you, they both seemed like top tier missionaries. They talked to the person that they paid for parking about the church. (like, WHAT?....that certainly IS talking to everyone). After we got there we were right away greeted by the mission president, his wife and all the senior couples that work in the office and they had this huge lunch prepared for us. It was the sweetest thing in the world. It felt like coming to a home of sorts. I LOVED it! And then after that, we had orientation all day. Classes on lots of logistical things-- how to take care of our house and our car and how to spend our money well and stuff like that. And then a class by the APs on talking to everyone (THEY MADE US PROMISE WE WOULD DO IT OH DEAR HERE COMES THE SCARES). And then lastly, we had a beautiful testimony meeting and were assigned our companions and our areas. My trainer/new companion's name is Hermana Gates. She is WONDERFUL. She is super hard working and super efficient and super fun. She loves the gospel, she loves the people, and I am really excited to work with her. And she is such an example of quiet service to me. She does ANYTHING that anyone needs to be done. AH. Ok and then we went back and she took me to the grocery store to get food and shampoo and etc with my new special missionary money card (I had to be smart about how I spent it!!!) and then we got me unpacked, did planning and went to bed. Ok so I guess that was just yesterday....but you get the idea. This morning we have been studying mostly. You get 4 hours of study time for the first 12 weeks. 1 hour personal, 2 hours companion, and one hour of language. We have got 3/4 lessons planned for between now and dinner and I am SO excited! We did a lot of roleplaying this morning and I feel ready!! :) 

SPIRITUAL LIGHTBULB

Ok so this week I will probably skip on giving you the top ten (sorry!) but I will tell you about my spiritual lightbulb moment of the week. Like I said, I got to experience for myself, a BIT of how hard this is going to be yesterday; but I have been anticipating it all week. They have been preparing us for certain. Probably my most spiritual moment was when we watched a video by Elder Holland (he is just winning in saving HMN Lindsey this week isnt he?) in class that talked about how "salvation is not a cheap experience"-- how if we want to become like Christ we are going to have to walk where he walked and suffer some of what he suffered. In other words, becoming like Christ has a lot to do with going through hard things (and being/becoming like Christ during those hard experiences). The video showed Christ's atonement and crucifixion with Jeffrey R Holland's voice in the background and in that moment-- I felt the difficulty of what I was about to do (and of things I had already done) - but I also felt the incredible, indescribable WORTH of what I am going to be doing. It was kind of an intimidating feeling for me. But it was also really poignant. Not only because it created connections for different ideas I had been thinking about before, but also because a missionary had sent me that quote once-- and I had not understood what it meant really, because it had not been in context and I was not half the person I am now-- and when he said that one part-- "salvation is not a cheap experience" a tear welled up in my eye because I understood. I understood then what I had not understood when I had received that message, and it was actually so meaningful. I am really glad I came to understand that before being in the field and also I am glad that I came to better understand the enobling power of the Atonement. Because I am going to NEED those things!!! Ok now off to lunch and then to work!! I love you guys!! Be good for me and have a GREAT week!!!! 

WIth love and big hugs, 

Hermana Lindsey 

Come Unto Christ

Hi guys!! 

No matter what we are struggling with, there is always hope if we come unto Christ.

OVERVIEW/SPIRITUAL LIGHTBULB

I am mildly distracted because some person is playing the piano INCREDIBLY BEAUTIFULLY right next door, and time is short, HOWEVER, I will try to fill you in on everything or rather as much as I can really quickly. There are tons of emotions swirling around in my life and my district right now cause today is our last P day and this is our last week. It is crazy, because we literally feel like we just got here yesterday, and at the same time we feel like this big huge mormon missionary family vibe at CCM and that is going to be really hard to leave! However, I am exercising my faith to believe that I wont lose track of these amazing people entirely and that we will be able to see each other again someday! Thankfully most of the girls (all but one!) in my district will be coming to my exact mission soon, so that is pretty great! I am starting off with the heavier more spiritual stuff first because that is what really matters most, and unfortunately the email time left is fairly short because I tried to be better about answering everybody individually. I am trying to find a balance, hopefully I will once I get in the field!! The lesson of this week for me is kind of an extension of what I have been learning, but I think I really have been re learning how to be really open with my feelings. It is something that isnt really normal and it makes you seem kind of weird-- even as a missionary in a group of people that are always supposed to be bearing their testimonies. However, what I have realized is that too often I am not willing to put as much out there as I need to, and that often I have problems being humble enough to realize that God doesnt just need me to sacrifice my time, he needs me to give away my heart. I have been thinking a lot about that scripture in the New Testament that is quoted in the end of Mere Christianity that talks about losing your life for Gods sake and for the sake of others you shall keep it and if you try to keep it you will lose it. The concept is WAY to complicated to explain in an email, and I recommend the reading of that beautiful book and the New Testament (which details the saviors life) to like EVERYONE, however the general idea is that the more selfless you are the more yourself you are and the more enjoyment you find in life and the more selfish you are the less that is true. Sometimes its hard to understand but basically love is not a pie, you dont lose it by sharing it. And sometimes, as someone that has dealt with heartbreak and loneliness and rejection (just like everybody of course), I dont believe how that is really true. But what I have learned is that if you act selflessly, with selfish motivations or selfish thoughts hoping that you will be recognized or something-- you will be dreadfully unhappy. However if you act selflessly THINKING AND BEING MOTIVATED SELFLESSLY AS WELL--- then, and ONLY THEN, will you find true happiness. In other words give things away willingly and you will see miracles happen in your life, and YOUR LIFE WILL BE RICHER FOR IT. This guy came that is over all the international mtcs and he showed all these pictures of missionaries before and after their missions and it ACTUALLY CHANGED MY LIFE. I had not realized that THE EXACT REASON that people come back from their missions so much happier and well rounded and emotionally stable (in general) is because they STOP FOCUSING ON THEMSELVES, and START FOCUSING ON OTHERS. We have been reading chapter 6 in PMG about developing christlike attributes in our personal study and I am trying to stretch myself to become as much like the Savior as HUMANLY POSSIBLE. Ok so now REALLY QUICK the TOP TEN: 

1. funniest moment of the week... 

ANOTHER GOLDEN MOMENT OF TEACHING IN SPANISH WITH HERMANA BJORK (translated into english for all yall) 

Hmn Bjork: Donde es su esposa? (So where is your wife?) 

Marcos: no aqui... (not here...) 

Hmn Bjork: No aqui on la tierra? (Not on the earth?) (forgive us for being blunt our spanish is terrible so we did not know how to ask that another way) 

Hmn Lindsey: Por cuanton años? (For how many years?)

Hmn Bjork  whispering in english to hmn lindsey with her hand over her face: We are gonna teach about The plan of salvation now (we had planned to teach lesson number 3...) 

Hmn Lindsey: Entonces.... (So...) 

Hhahahahha no worries though it worked out. But we "WUNG" that WHOLE LESSON as they say haha :P I guess that means I am ready for the field? hahahah :P 

2. beautiful video we found for lesson 1 on personal revelation/the joseph smith first vision that I will attach 

3. WE PLAYED FOR DEVOTIONAL IT WAS SO FUN AND THE MISSION PRESIDENT SHOOK MY HAND AND SAID IT WAS AMAZING SO THAT WAS COOL!!! 

4. On Sunday in Relief Society, we talked about the GC talk "Loving Others and Living With Differences" which was literally my FAVORITE THING EVER from GC. It really struck me that Dallin H Oaks was the one  that gave it too...It is an awesome talk!! I recommend it for SURE!!! 

5. We had a Book of Mormon reading activity as a district in which I realized that I really need to have more faith that I can actually bring people to a place of testimony and conversion. It was really eye opening and it has motivated me to get over all my fear of failure and just get straight to the work!!! 

6. This is totally out of context but.... Hermana Crumm who is literally the funniest person said this one night this week 

"lets tap dance out our feelings in morse code" 

just an excerpt of the kinds of moments that make me laugh at the end of a long day!!! 

7. We watched an Elder Bednar devotional this week and there was a moment where after explaining how much we need to do to get to a higher level of service he just looked straight out at the audience and said YOU CAN DO THIS. Even though he was not actually there and this was from a long while ago, I felt like he was speaking directly to me and it was SO AMAZING. I almost cried. I CAN DO THIS. It was such a beautiful feeling!!! 

8. HAHA ok so my companion is the coolest person in the world. I found out this week that she is a black belt in karate and so she has been teaching crav mi ga (no se the spelling sorry) and it has been amazing. Now we are all going to know how to protect ourselves in the super ghetto parts of california haha :P DONT MESS WITH HERMANA BJORK!!! 

9. We get to play investigators, as I think I mentioned before, and this week one of my lessons was the most spirtual thing ever because ACTING AS THE INVESTIGATOR, I felt them pin prick my heart. I always play really difficult investigators, because I think it is more realistic than what most people do but this was the first time that they totally cracked me and touched my spirit as well as the half made up spirit of my investigator. It was such a beautiful experience, and I was actually crying like all over the place hahaha :P 

10. OK MOST BEAUTIFUL MOMENT OF MY WEEK WAS LAST NIGHT my companion and I went on a huge walk and talked about like everything that we have ever had trouble with ever, and even though we have been close, last night we got even closer. God definitely inspired this companionship. I have learned so much from her, and I love her with all of my heart!!! 

Anyways I have got to go, after I  attach this video but be good and have an AMAZING week!!! I LOVE YOU ALL TO THE DEPTHS OF THE OCEAN AND THE HEIGHTS OF THE MOON!!! 

xoxo 

Hermana Lindsey 

BUENOS TARDES FROM HERMANA LINDSEY

HI everybody! 

Overview

I hope that you are all doing well!!! I have had another great week at the CCM and though the pressure to be fluent in spanish is definitively heightening, I have been having way too much fun to get too worried about it. Also, may I just take this moment to say I am SO thankful that I made taking my education seriously a priority. It makes a HUGE difference!! Learning is learning and if you learn how to learn well, than you can learn ANYTHING. Or at least that is my new theory. This week my companion and I have been complimented on how quickly we have been learning spanish and though of course it is not about recognition, that has given us quite the sense of relief!!! This week has brought a few more challenges than the last few, but thankfully we have been dealing with them humorously. One of the girls in my room got really sick, and I have felt super bad but she has been dealing like a champ and thankfully none of us are sick yet, which is such a majorly huge blessing. I pray for her like multiple times a day because of course being sick here is just so hard because you still have to do everything! I am definitely feeling the pressing closeness of how soon I will actually be in California. I mean, think about it, 2 emails from now-- I will not be in Mexico!! AH! I guess I feel it more because now that District 14B left, we are the "oldest" District in our branch-- meaning we have been here longest at the CCM. Saying goodbye to District 14B was really hard, harder even than the last District that left, but it was easier knowing that they are all going to be amazing where they are serving. A beautiful, wonderful, amazing, super intelligent Hermana named Hermana Turner is coming to the Boston, MA mission which includes parts of New York, Connecticut, and New Hampshire and I think maybe even VT so be on the lookout! She is super tall with long brown hair and a big beautiful smile, so if you see her, my guess is you wont be able to miss her! I told her about some of you guys, so maybe she will bump into you-- who knows!! :) Anyways, I think I will do the top ten quickly, and then get onto my spiritual lightbulb. 

TOP TEN 

1. Ok this one is from today. An Elder named Elder Rodriguez, a sweet Latino Elder asked me if he could borrow "my" violin. I talked to Hermana Gill and helped him to meet her and set it up so now we are sharing it, so he can play for his district as well. 

2. Speaking of the violin, one day this week I played for all the members of my district and they played this game where they would just turn to a page in the hymn book and I would play it. HAHA They thought it was so fun.... I may not be the best sightreader in the world, but it is pretty cool that I can play pretty much any hymn anyone wants without practicing it haha :P 

3. haha ok so here is a funny one. Last night, when my poor sick roommate was sneezing like nobodys business we had a discussion of what to say in spanish to each sneeze. First three sneezes you say "salud" and then on the fourth its good luck (in spanish, "buenas suertes"...excuse my spelling if it is bad) and then on the fifth apparently you earn true love for sneezing so much. The following exchange thus occured: 
Hermana Lindsey: "You only have to sneeze 5 times to find true love" 

Hermana Bjork (my beautiful compinera): "Best go find some pepper dear." haha...so that is just an example of the kind of random conversation we have in the casa between 9:30 and 10:15. 

4. Ok so, COOLEST EXPERIENCE OF THE WEEK PROBABLY was going to the leadership meeting. We were tired, because it was at 7 AM on a Sunday morning but it was so worth it. It was super crazy being the only Hermanas there (besides of course the branch presidents wife) but it was really nice to contribute our two cents about things, and to hear what all the District leaders think about how everybody is doing. It definitely made me think about some things I want to improve on doing personally, and some things I can help all the girls with...haha oh and this is one of the moments in which we got called out for good spanish. Which was actually kind of embarrassing because we already stood out so much just for being the only Hermanas in the room ahha.... 

5. OH MY GOODNESS HOW COULD I FORGET THIS Elder Neil L. Anderson came and spoke about the Atonement and its relationship to missionary work that was AMAZING. And we got to shake his hand individually so that was SUPER COOL!! Will talk more about that in the spiritual lightbulb section 

6.this week for one of our lessons we translated "be still my soul" into spanish from english because it is not in the hymn book in spanish and we REALLY WANTED TO SING IT... our teacher loved it so much he kept the little notecard we put it on.... 

7. haha ok so once a week you are supposed to do companion inventory and this is how ours went: 

Hermana Lindsey: "So...how exactly ARE we doing?" 

Hermana Bjork: "I really like you." 

Hermana Lindsey: "And I you." 

And then we giggled for a couple seconds and got on to planning our lesson. Man I am so spoiled, I am actually worried I will never again have a companion so compatible to myself! 

8. Ok so this actually, IN TRUTH, was the most beautiful moment of my week. We are teaching this fake investigator named Martin and after several lessons, we asked the baptismal question for like the 3rd or 4th time and he literally said after a minute of contemplation an us lovingly staring him down: 

"ok" 

Here is what I wrote in my journal about it: 

"WORK WORK WORK OBSTACLE OBSTACLE OBSTACLE PRAY PRAY PRAY and suddenly, the word "ok" is the answer to all your prayers" 

HOW COOL IS THAT THOUGH??? 

You can tell I am taking this fake investigator thing seriously by the fact that I LITERALLY danced after that lesson. LITERALLY. And then ate chokis. Which you know, is ALWAYS an amazing experience... 

9. One of the Elders in 14B gave a talk on Sunday, the day before he left and it was actually the most beautiful thing. He was like, crying all over the place and everything. It was, to quote my companion "tender" (she uses that word more than anyone else I have ever met in my LIFE...) 

10. Every Sunday evening we watch a spiritual movie after we have our devotional. This week we watched one about the history of sister missionaries and it reminded me how lucky I am to be able to serve right now....and furthermore it made me think about how inspired the age change was. Pretty much 99% of the Hermanas at the CCM are under 21!!! CRAZINESS HOW COOL IS THAT??? AND WE ARE GOING TO ROCK THE SOCKS OFF OF THE ENTIRE SPANISH SPEAKING PLANET!!! 

Okie dok so now, 

SPIRITUAL LIGHTBULB OF THE WEEK 

I do not have much time AH AS USUAL, but in short, my spiritual lightbulb of the week has been about the Atonement, and the Atonements relationship to forgiveness. I have been learning, over the past few weeks, how much the Atonement really applies too. That quote "All that is unfair about life can be fixed through the Atonement of Jesus Christ" (or whatever exactamente it is) I have been learning more and more about everyday. I could explain even more but I dont have much time and MY SISTER JUST EMAILED ME SO I MUST EMAIL HER BACK BEFORE I TURN INTO A PUMPKIN AND LOSE MY GLASS EMAILING SLIPPERS buuuuttt what you should ALL do is go to LDS.ORG and find the video called "come unto christ" under the resource section, in the video section of the youth part. I wish I could attach it, but anyways, its a bunch of youth singing and playing the piano and there are 4 stories of how people utilized the atonement in their lives and it is ABSOLUTELY THE MOST AMAZING LDS.ORG VIDEO I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE!!! WE USED IT IN LIKE 3 LESSONS THIS WEEK 

also as a sidenote, my teachers are AWESOME. They are both from mexico and served missions in mexico but speak amazing english when necessary (cause we are supposed to speak spanish ahha...) and one of them is a CONVERT to the church, who got baptized 8 years ago and I just think that is SO COOL...he is such a passionate missionary and he has made the HUGEST difference in my life....I will be SO SAD TO LEAVE HIM!!! 

ANYWAYS I LOVE YOU ALL TALK TO YOU NEXT WEEK!!!!

OH WAIT JUST KIDDING I CAN ATTACH THE LINK TO THE VIDEO HERE IT COMES!!! 

https://www.lds.org/youth/video/come-unto-christ-2014-theme-song?lang=eng

EVERYBODY WATCH IT PLEASE AND PREPARE YOURSELVES WITH TISSUES!!! 

LOVE YOU SO MUCH AH AH OK I HAVE TO LEAVE NOW 

AH I LOVE YOU BYE!!! 

HERMANA LINDSEY 

LES AMO from HMN LINDSEY

Hi everybody! 

OVERVIEW

My heart is so full this week. I feel that I could not possibly express how thankful I am for those of you who keep in touch with me so well, and send me such strong support from afar, it really means a lot to me! Also, I have had such a spiritual testimony strengthening week, I cannot wait to share some of my insights with you! It is funny how when I left on a mission everybody told me I would change, and I did not believe them. But after being in the CCM for only 3 weeks, I can now see how even JUST THOSE FEW DAYS have changed my life FOREVER. It is hard to explain how it happens exactly, because it is the sum total of hours of classes everyday, but I know now for sure that though I went on a mission for others-- perhaps the person that will change is myself. And as Elder Bednar said in a devotional we watched last week, perhaps the most oxymoronical part of that is that I will change for the better and become a better person specificially BECAUSE I will be focusing on others, and not on myself. Being a Sister Training Leader has been the absolute biggest blessing in my life. The first week, as I expressed, my companion and I really focused too much on ourselves. We focused on how we could not understand the language, how we were having trouble adjusting to mexico and how we did not understand how we could be successful missionaries. Granted, the hard work we put in because of that stress is one of the major reasons we are really starting to get the language now-- BUT this amazing thing happened as soon as we became STL'S. WE STOPPED FOCUSING ON OURSELVES. And let me tell you, EVERY SINGLE GOOD THING THAT HAS HAPPENED TO ME IN THE CCM SINCE, has been because of that. This week a girl in our casa got a concussion, and she came to us seeking some help. Just as an illustration of how selfless and beautiful and wonderful all the girls I live with are, let me tell you what happened. RIGHT AWAY they began to serve her. My companion loves essential oils so she "lathered her up" as she puts it, and then Hmn Rutherford starting massaging her hands and feet. I had just gotten out of the bathroom from brushing my teeth so I asked what I could do to help. Hmn Bjork suggested I play the violin because Hmn Bates *the girl with the concussion* LOVES when I play violin. I played her A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief and she sat there crying in the chair, so grateful for what we were doing. Already the spirit was SO SO strong, but after that, at 10:15 I had to stop playing the violin for quiet time, so we decided to sing. Hmn Hellawell and I sang Abide with Me Tis Eventide and that is when I started to cry. When the girls from all the other rooms in our casa started coming in and joining us on both the soprano, and then the alto part, I can honestly say I have never felt the spirit so strong in my life. Music is such a powerful healing tool and I have come to appreciate it more and more on my mission, if only for its rarity, though I have used it WAY more than I thought I would. But what really touched me, is how Christlike all those girls are. I was standing all amazed at the love Jesus offered me by giving me such deeply beautiful and wonderful people to live with. I was saying the other day I might have to move to Utah just so I can live with the majority of them after my mission!! haha...though maybe I can convert some of them to the east coast. haha...who knows! and now that leads me to

MY SPIRITUAL LIGHTBULB MOMENT 

Ok so above I guess was the moment. But more than that, my spiritual THOUGHT is this. Sunday, we had this amazing devotional with Jeffrey R. Holland (on the screen of course not in real life unfortunately haha) in which he talked about giving your whole soul to the work. That was when it really hit me why I was serving. I have had a lot of hard moments lately, because you are required to ask someone to be baptized by the 2nd visit. I may have mentioned this before because it is something I have a HUGE problem with. Mainly because, and my non member friends may laugh at this, there are people I have known for YEARS that I would not even dream of asking "Would you follow the Saviors example and be baptized one month from now?" haha, but what I realized the other day was....I have never led anyone to the waters of baptism. Here I was, thinking I knew better than everybody else, thinking I knew better than Preach My Gospel, thinking I knew better than my teachers and all the missionaries in the world, thinking I knew how to subtly get someone to get baptized a million years in the future and that that made more since. But what really hit me, as I was practicing memorizing that baptismal question in spanish is that... I have never baptized anyone. None of my friends have read the Book of Mormon all the way through because of me, and furthermore I have only taken my non member friends to church maybe 2 or 3 times. As Jeffrey R. Holland  put it...if I ever want to be successful in bringing my friends or my investigators or ANYONE to the one most precious thing that I have....then I am going to have to "BE a little bold", I am going to have to "BE a little persistent". Now people may laugh at this, especially again my non member friends whom I love so dearly-- that was when I realized I did not need to forget about them, I needed to REMEMBER them. I needed to remember the times that my friends had asked me what happens after we die and the times my friends had told me they just did not understand how I could get over my trials or what made me so different than my friends. I needed to remember how grateful my friends were when I loved them or helped them or gave them a little piece of what I love so much and knew to be true. I needed to remember them because THEY are the reason I served this mission. Because at the end of the day, I  am not what they need. What they truly need is the Savior. And I am getting all choked up as I write this, but that moment changed the rest of my mission I am sure. I was trying so hard to feel less, to be less empathetic, to be a more "normal" missionary. But what I needed to be was myself. What I needed to remember was MY life experience. I did not need to pretend to be what everybody else was. God sent me on this mission, and he wanted me to be ME not somebody else. As soon as I realized that, all my lessons changed and now even though they are fake investigators-- I am getting to know their needs and I am teaching lessons that are more specifically tailored to them. And every time I look in their eyes and tell them my testimony, I see the people I love. I see my friends from high school and from Killington and from Foulgers and from New York University and from Connecticut and from my trip around the world and I tell them-- 

"God loves you. God knows you. The Savior of the World atoned for your sins and for your trials and for your troubles and for everything awful about life and if you come unto Christ, not only will He make you clean-- He will make you TRULY happy." 

In other words, I tell them everything I was always too afraid to say AS BOLDLY AS I NOW DO to all of my friends. And someday, I hope that that testimony will ring in their ears as well. But I want them all to know, how much I am serving this mission for them as well as for the people out here and I encourage anybody and everybody everywhere to read the book of mormon and pray about it because THAT IS WHY I AM OUT HERE and THAT IS WHY I AM SERVING A MISSION and THAT IS WHAT WILL HELP MORE THAN ANYTHING FROM ME. And that is all I have to say about that... 

haha ok so since the whole email thus far has been super spiritual, I will make the top ten silly ones 

1. Yesterday, my teacher Hermano Beltran told us all (in spanish) about a really funny dream he had about a guy who had chairs for arms that he had to fight to protect his pregnant wife. Apparently though, because he sleep walks he was actually in danger of bodily harming HER ironically enough....Thankfully he didnt. A little scary, but super funny and it was awesome that we could understand all of that in spanish hahaha... 

2. Last night we played this game called "Samurai" in family home evening. SUPER funny hahah...though we did get a little loud for missionaries haha....

3. OH WAIT OK SO THIS ISNT A FUNNY ONE BUT I GAVE A TALK IN SPANISH ON SUNDAY AND PLAYED IN A DIFFERENT WARD RIGHT IN A ROW SO THAT WAS AWESOME AND CRAZY AND SUPER COOL haha...

4. oh, I have been giving Hmn Bjork "ballet lessons" on some of our gym days. little girls might appreciate that... it has been SUPER fun!! 

5. Ok so I mentioned, but I am OBSESSED with a snack here called "chokis". Hermano Beltran yesterday during our five minute break did this thing where he would say "chokis" various times just to see what my facial expression was....believe me it was always a super happy oen. But then I was always disappointed when no actual chokis existed haha...also hahahahha he said that today he would through us tacos over the fence. Obviously joking cause it is not allowed but hahaha it was SO SO FUNNY...as you can see us missionaries get a little food crazed. This week I have really missed american food. I remember one day during our language class (we were learning past participles)....I just REALLY wanted PF Changs. So if you guys go...THINK OF ME WHILE YOU EAT IT...hahahhaha :P 

6. ok also not a funny one but our other teacher Hermano Silva gave us a coaching one day and literally all he had to tell us was firstly that we didnt have to ask to tell stories and 2ndly that we needed to schedule a day to come back haha...BUT HE LOVED OUR CONTENT AND QUESTIONS AND EVERYTHING SO THAT WAS THE BEST 

7. hahaha....oh dear so one day we all got really sick from the fish at dinner, but then one of the elders drew a picture of a fish on our board that had a quote in it that said " I dont feel so hot"-- everybody who ate the fish except Elder Tadje...ahha that was really funny. I love my district, they have a way of making lemonade out of lemoney moments...so that was pretty great...

8. ok so last P day hermana hellawell had an AMAZING birthday....hahahaha and the volleball game I mentioned went really well except for the fact that I pretty much always AVOIDED the ball rather than hitting it. Hhahaha but we did, as I guessed, make the elders laugh pretty hard so that was pretty great...

9. there is a girl in our casa who is from Hawaii and sings hymns in her native language while she showers. honestly there is no more beautiful sound in the entire world and we applaud her every night...

10. one day this week I got to pretend to be an investigator for an extensive period of time (we do it alot but this one was longer). I pretended to be somebody I knew really well and it was really powerful to me how well my companion taught this person. It made me think and hope that my friends can have such experience with missionaries in the future. I have a friend actually, in this branch, who is going to boston. Her name is Hermana Turner. If anybody meets her PLEASE DO LET ME KNOW! She is awesome. :) 

All right guys, so I think that is it for now. I will be attaching pictures as a PS from another computer in JUST A FEW MINUTES if I can possibly manage it...

I LOVE YOU ALL!!! 

XOXOXOXO 

HMN LINDSEY 

BUENOS DIAS MI AMIGOS

HOLA FRIENDS AND FAMILY! 

Overview

haha I am in the best mood EVER so this email will probably come off potentially even more ridiculously happy than the last one. This was definitely, hands down, one of the most rewarding and fun weeks of my life. My companion and I are finally starting to get a handle of the spanish, and we have found a way to study it that is more effective, and provides more time for actually studying the scriptures and the gospel which makes me SUPER happy. :) Last P day we made the goal to read a chapter of the scriptures in spanish every day, looking up all the words we do not know, and we have succeeded all days but one when we ALMOST got through chapter 8 of 1 Nefi because it was so long and so complicated (porque tree of life vision haha). Anyways, it has been the BEST things we have decided to do and even though it has taken us like an hour every day, it has DEFINITELY been worth it. Also, we start the day doing what Elder Bednar suggested in an MTC devotional that we watched the first week, by marking up BRAND NEW BLUE BOOK OF MORMONS with ideas to answer one specific question. I would love to be able to finish it again through by the time I leave the CCM. Anyways, in terms of spanish outside of scripture reading, we have been focusing specifically on the homework assignments given in class and the words we need to know for our lessons rather than trying to just learn EVERYTHING. I think a big reason we were slightly overwhelmed the first week is because we did not really focus our study for efficiency and rather tried to become fluent ASAP. Focusing our study has resulted in much more success, and much more efficiency. One day we were even sort of spotlighted as the only students who had done all the homework and that was crazy haha...OK THEN IN TERMS OF JUST GENERAL OVERALL LIFE, haha we have had the craziest 48 hours. Today is Hermana Hellawell's birthday and to celebrate we got haircuts (me just a few inches, somewhere between where it was last august and where it was when I left, and her a pixie) I love mine and Hermana Hellawell's is amazing as well so we are super happy with that and it is even more amazing because the haircuts were FREE. Also, last night after we turned out the lights, Hermana Bjork and I decorated the entire room and made a "cake" out of chokis (cookies like chips ahoy only better) and m and ms and put a starburst on it as the "candle" haha...we covered the room in different colored paper hearts saying all the things we like about her and then TO WAKE HER UP we sang happy birthday and I played it on the violin WHICH THE MUSIC HERMANA HAS DONATED TO ME WHILE I AM HERE AHHHH SO HAPPY.... It was such a beautiful moment, I wish I could send you pictures of it....(and my hair haha) Then later today we are playing volleyball with the Elders from our district which will be HAHAHAHAH.....INTERESTING. The other day, us girls played tennis and let us just say that my playing bordered on STRAIGHT UP COMEDY, so we will make the Elders laugh really hard as per usual... ALSO it is good today is a P day and a birthday because last night was pretty sad. One of the districts in our branch left, and even though we only knew them 2 weeks we are going to miss them so much. Our STLs left, so now Hermana Bjork and I are officially "in charge"...they gave us a sweet party in their casa before we left, and that was so nice. They are the best, they will do such great work in Texas. And also, some pretty awesome elders left. So, let us just say that last night sadness was felt all around in casa 21 haha.... ANYWAYS. Now that I have given you some idea of the week, and some moments even....here are the TOP TEN (again I will try to share a balance of funny and spiritual...)

1. OH MAN SO I FORGOT TO MENTION IN THE OVERVIEW, GENERAL CONFERENCE. To answer your questions, we did watch it in english haha and it was MUY BUENO. It was really spirtual though to also watch and listen to the speakers who spoke in their native languages, esp spanish. I felt the spirit super strong right then. I am DEFINITELY gaining a testimony of the beauty of the spanish language and of the gift of tongues. I seriously almost cried when one of the spanish general authorities spoke. It was SUPER cool.... I was like I UNDERSTAND HIM ANNNND THE TRANSLATION...

2. haha ok so this feels like forever ago, but our first lesson last week we did with NOTHING BUT A NOTECARD. That was SUPER stressful, and we had to do tons of sign language type stuff to get our point across but it was an uber big miracle in the end that we could understand him at all and that he could understand us haha. The teacher wanted us to move away from having a "script" and so that was our big move haha 

3. Ok I do not know what category this falls into, but just as an illustration of the fact that some of the elders here are SUPER nice, on Thursday of last week when me and my companion were walking through the rain and I was struggling to remain under her umbrella, becoming thus SOAKED, this really nice elder showed up out of nowhere and gave his umbrella to me and then ran back to the JFSB where I gave it back to him. Obviously he got wet in the process. It kind of made my day...

4. Ok so I already mentioned this but my companion is AMAZING and she found the music lady and got me to play for her and one of the other senior hermanas violins that is for the missionaries and they loved it so much that they gave me the violin to play all the time. It is no strad, but it an instrument and playing it makes me so happy I want to cry. Thus far I have only played it that one time outside of P day though, so no worries I am not abusing the privilege. Although when I played bach this morning, all of the girls in our casa came up to our door and said CAN YOU DO THAT EVERY DAY and I was...MUCHO FLATTERED haha. the hermanas I live with are the BEST. they make me laugh every day and I love them SO MUCH!!! I hope we will all stay friends for LIFE...

5. hahaha ok so another thing about those beautiful girls. We did a yoga/tai chi class on Friday with all the girls in our casa that was super relaxing and also MUY DIVERTIDO haha so that was amazing. I also led a short meditation/deep breathing thing that everybody enjoyed, and we have decided to make it a Friday TRADITION...

6. Oh so this is violin related, but I have been asked to play for a group of Hermanas who are singing for their last sunday and i was MUCHO FLATTERED. I met them at lunch and they are the SWEETEST. I will DEFINITELY miss them when they leave....

7. We watched the spoken word before conference on Sunday and THAT ELIJAH CHORUS WAS AMAZING. For those of  you who didnt see, YOU MUST FIND IT ON THE INTERNET AND WATCH IT....SO MANY BEAUTIFUL HARMONIES!!!! I TOTALLY SOAKED UP MUSIC AND THE SPOKEN WORD...

8. Another super spiritual moment for me was watching the womens conference (here we watch it a week later at the same time as the elders watch priesthood) and especially that beautiful video of all the little girls from Seoul singing I love to see the temple in Korean. There was more highlighted diversity in GC in general, but I particularly loved this moment. It was followed by a beautiful video of peoples testimonies about temples and I almost cried. MUCHO DE ALMOST TEARY MOMENTS THIS WEEK haha....

9. OK SO AWESOME SMALL WORLD MOMENT....I found Jessica Lawrence´s best friend right before the Women´s conference...Hermana Fraser. She looked adorable in this bright orange dress and she had just gotten here a few days ago. I was able to talk to her about how everything was going and that was reallly nice. 

10. Ok so this one is super silly, and I probably should not tell you but some people (esp. Rebekah) will get a kick out of this. Yesterday, my companion basically dared me to give my email to this guy who was leaving for Chile and then magically somehow I found a non awkward way to do it...so that was fun... haha...obviously, if I really can not email friends in CA then it will be a lost and hopeless case, but oh well. In turn, she had to do the same for someone else. So we had a funny day yesterday. But no worries, asides from meal times in which we were trying to find them, we remained focused on the work. Good thing they are gone though haha oh dear...moving on haha

SPIRITUAL LIGHTBULB MOMENT 

If I were to describe my spiritual realizations this week in one single word the word would be "HUMBLING". For those who know me really well, and even those who do not, you probably know that I am super stubborn. When I think I am right, and even sometimes when I am not sure, I stick to my opinion like none other. I guess what I realized during general conference, and throughout the week, is that being a true christian does not really include that kind of stubborn always-thinking-i-am-right kind of attitude. Granted, I always try to be sympathetic empathetic so it is not a relationships with people thing---but in terms of spirituality I think it is important to have humility so that we can submit to the words of the prophets and the promptings of the spirit. Sometimes, we will be told to do things that we do not understand or completely agree with. It takes humility in this case to obey. And obedience, of course, is a really important thing as a missionary. I also simultaneously realized that if I am to get the most out of my relationships with people here, then I need to be more open and more trusting. My companion and I have gotten better at communicating when we are feeling stressed or down so that we can re evaluate what we are doing so that we can do better and feel better at the same time. I guess, to put it into a phrase (and many will pump their fists at this) I am trying to break down  my walls. To become open and free. Because THAT is what the gospel should bring--freedom and happiness. Not super uptightness. It has been a really brain changing week for me, and I think I am starting to make some major changes in my personality, so I guess you will all be able to see at some point haha... Anyways, my hours almost up so I have got to go. 

No pictures this week but I will try to send some next week...

Hoping you all have been getting or will soon get my paper letters... I sent them to our home address in a super full envelope with a mexican stamp with a pear on it. It will probably be fairly conspicous...let me know...

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! DO AMAZING THINGS AND BE HAPPY!!!! 

XXX 

Hermana Lindsey

HOLA from Hermana Lindsey

Dear family and friends,

Hermana Lindsey & Hermana Bjorn (Hermana Frozen)

WHAT A BEAUTIFUL THING P-DAY IS!!! haha, this morning I woke up feeling like I was on cloud 9 for getting through to the first P-day, and to top it all off we had pancakes for breakfast, and purely because I was so pleased with life and because it was sitting right there in front of my overly happy face waiting for me, I decided to put chocolate syrup on my pancakes. I have never done this before. haha. It was SO GOOD. Anyways, time is short and I am determined to give a BIG HUGE GOOD LONG WONDERFUL EMAIL so here it comes!!! I shall split this up into three sections. Section 1) General Overview of the Week, Section 2) Top Ten favorite moments (I think I shall try for five spiritual and five funny) and Section 3) Spiritual Lightbulb of the week. My plan is to always do the emails this way. It will keep my thoughts organized-- as most people who have ever read anything I have written would know-- I tend to go a bit crazy and tangential and get really confusing. So this organization will probably help. I hope to bring laughter, the spirit, and a sense of my general existence with each email. I love you guys so much!!! Ok, HERE GOES 

OVERVIEW 

Ok, so first of all, I have way more respect for every person I have ever known that has served a mission now. The past six days have QUITE HONESTLY been some of the busiest, hardest working days of my life. And for anyone who knows me, and what my practicing schedules were like, that´s saying a lot. We speak spanish, or shall I say "spanglish" almost 100% of the time, especially since my companion and I made the rule that we would only speak english when the sun is not up. (haha I created that rule porque sleep deprivation haha). My first two days here were, in all honesty, SHOCKINGLY difficult. The MTC (or the CCM is what it´s called here) is kind of like language and spiritual bootcamp. I have no problem with the spiritual part, and ironically due to the amount of classes I have during the day I actually have way less time for personal scripture reading (but I´m going to try to remedy that next week) but the language is MUCHO MUCHO MUCHO SERIOUS BUSINESS. And at first, all I could think was, "I can´t speak spanish, I can´t speak spanish, I can´t speak spanish....WHAT AM I DOING." Thankfully, based on some personal spiritual moments that I had, I got over this about the third day here and me and my companion decided on the motto that we´ll "fake it until we make it," Meaning we put all of ourselves into everything-- participating with one hundred percent of ourselves, putting all of our effort into it, and simply hoping that we will become the missionaries we want to be-- by sort of being them already. It takes faith to teach lessons in spanish (we taught on the SECOND DAY OF CLASSES ISN´T THAT CRAZY???) and it took faith to bear our testimonies in spanish, and it takes faith to make comments at devotionals where there are literally HUNDREDS of missionaries, but we JUST DO IT. (as Nike would say, haha) And it is working out! It must be slightly working out to because after only 5 days of being here, we got called to be sister training leaders (on Sunday) and I was literally SHOCKED. haha the branch president was apparently really impressed with our testimonies being in spanish the first week, and he expressed that. We officially become the trainers next week after the old ones leave. They are taking us under their wing this week and teaching us what we need to know, and that´s pretty great. Other things--- the food took some getting used to, but I eat like crazy, Haha my companion thinks it is really funny. I eat a lot at the meals though, cause snacks are NOT A THING. You are not allowed to eat in classrooms or in the casa, so your meals are the END ALL BE ALL OF FOOD. ALSO though no worries, I´m not going to become a GIANT because we have gym time for like 45 minutes every day. My companion and I go running, do abs or elliptical most days. It´s so great!!! ALSO the first day I was here a sweet little old lady asked if anyone played musical instruments and I was like "SI SI SI SENORITA" so I might get to play while I´m here! Which would be AWESOME! We will see!! There have been some amazing musical numbers already. CRAZY GOOD ELDER PIANIST PERSON and also a singer so THAT WAS COOL. What else? Well, MY COMPANION IS ACTUALLY THE COOLEST PERSON IN THE WORLD AND MY BEST FRIEND AND SHE LOOKS LIKE ELSA FROM FROZEN SO EVERYBODY CALLS HER "HERMANA FROZEN" including the mission president haha. She´s a super hard worker, super focused, and she definitely keeps me on my toes. Ironically, I´m the chiller one of the companionship and I make sure that we take breaks, eat all our meals, and laugh a lot. HAHA she thinks I am super funny hahahahah Anyways, I think that´s good for overall. 

TOP TEN OF THE WEEK (doing this simply in backwards chronological order, not in order of importance, purely due to time sorry) 

1) Yesterday, we had a really, really excellent lesson in spanish. MEANING we didn´t just read off of a script. We actually talked back in forth with the investigator (fake investigator of course haha but still) and I ACTUALLY UNDERSTOOD HIM. It was AMAZING and it TOTALLY testified to me the power of prayer because I was praying every second I didn´t understand him and I always eventually figured it out haha. To celebrate Heramana Bjork and I got chocolate bars from the tienda and SHE ATE CHOCOLATE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN FIVE YEARS ISN´T THAT CRAZY??? 

2) Everybody in our district bore their testimonies in spanish on Sunday. I was so proud of us and happy for everybody because at the beginnning of the week we couldn´t speak like ANY spanish. It was AMAZING. The branch president called it a "miracle" haha 

3) Our district leader, on Saturday, bore his testimony to us during our district meeting/planning time and shared Ether 12:27 about weak things becoming strong. It was so pertinent to the inadequacy we were all feeling about spanish and I feel like it really strengthened us all to be able to share our testimonies the next day. I´d been feeling particularly bad at spanish all day, and that really helped me!! We have such a great district leader, I´m really happy about it :) 

4) Friday was by far my hardest day at the CCM. I was totally doubting my ability to be a good missionary, but my best moment-- by FAR-- in that day was when I got home and read the card from Eumene and Vani that I had saved for a pertinent moment. I cried when I read it, but it gave me a lot of strength. I am so happy to have such beautiful people supporting me. 

5) haha ok so here is a funny one. We had a "dress and grooming" meeting for sisters, which frankly could have been pretty awkward or just boring but the mission president´s wife was HILARIOUS so it was SUPER FUNNY hahaha 

6) Also on that same day, we went to a workshop called "People and our Purpose". It was really helpful for me, because they played videos of people describing themselves and their relationship with faith and then we had to describe how we would respond to each of them and try to teach them. There was one women in particular that I felt such empathy for-- an elderly women whose husband had died who threw herself into her art after his death. I know what it´s like to depend on art for purpose, strength, comfort and peace-- and so I really felt for her and felt like I could teach her with great love and that was such a wonderful feeling. It really reminded me why I am here. I am here for the people who need someone like me. God sent me to be this missionary-- not somebody else-- and I am going to be important to someone´s conversion process, and it was only in that moment that my worth as a missionary, and even just as a human, really hit me. That was a super special moment, and I´m tearing up just thinking about it now!! 

7) haha ok so now a funny one. So yesterday, me and my companion had two really embarassin g moments consecutively. We tend to embarass ourselves a lot, but these were PARTICULARLY great hahahahahah ok so anyways. I can´t tell you her story because it´s hers not mine but RIGHT AFTER HERS we walked outside in the rain with our umbrellas and I was in a SUPER HAPPY MOOD because our lesson had gone so well and I just sort of started skipping. I then slipped straight onto the ground in one fell swoop. HAHAH I hurt myself but it was actually so funny that it didn´t matter. Unfortunately it got one of my skirts REALLY dirty, but I am going to try to fix that today. hahaha also elders across the street were so shocked it was kind of funny. They were also really nice and asked if I was ok. I was laughing too hard to really say yes but I smiled/laughed so they knew I was fine haha. 

8) ok so another funny one. In the lesson yesterday, we remembered everything except how to say Wednesday, it took me like 5 minutes to figure out we could just say our next meeting was in two days...ahhaha but it was an epic fail. But everything else went well so it was ok. hahaha 

9) Also, last night the other districts in our brach invited us to a F.H.E (family home evening) in which we played a game of "signs" Last night was definitely the most relaxed my companion and I have been (leading up to the meeting and during) We had a lot of fun. It was great. Also, it was just really nice of them to reach out to the newbies haha 

10) Lastly, I will describe my most spiritual moment of the week which will lead to my spiritual lightbulb moment. On Sunday afternoon after sacrament meeting, we watched a devotional from Elder Bednar about the characteristics of Christ and how we can obtain them and it totally turned around my general feeling about everything, especially since now I have other sisters to think about as a trainer. 

SPIRITUAL LIGHTBULB MOMENT 

Ok so I have to get off the computer soon so this will be short. BUT basically, what I realized during the Elder Bednar devotional is that life is not about being selfless when it´s easy to be selfless. Life is about being selfless when it´s NOT. He shared a story about a Relief Society President that helped all the mothers of people who had been in a car accident, and the women in her ward the same day that her only child died. I was positively BLOWN AWAY and in that moment, any internal (or external) problem I may have been happening seemed to mean almost nothing. Just because I´m a missionary doesn´t mean that hard things won´t happen, but the impressive and amazing and beautiful thing is that just because things go wrong for missionaries just like they go wrong for everyone else doesn´t mean that we can´t always put other people first. I think my calling will really help me to TURN OUTWARD rather than INWARD when things are hard. I am so thankful for this and I feel truly blessed. 

I love it here at the CCM even though I miss you all. Try to think about others, as much or more than you think about yourself, and I promise that your problems will begin to appear smaller and you will become more Christlike. 

AH HAVE AN AMAZING WEEK EVERYONE!!!! 

MUCHO MUCHO MUCHO MUCHO MUCHO AMOR 

ADIOS 

Hermana Lindsey